Editor,
I read with dismay, but not surprise, about the theft of two bassoons from the UNM Music Department valued at $14,000. (See Daily Lobo News in Brief, Feb. 18.)
The problem for the Music Department is not one of instrument theft but one of professional ethics. Students learn professional ethics from their professors and reflect the values they are taught.
When I was a graduate student in bassoon performance at UNM, one of my applied instructors counseled me on how to hide my independent income as a musician to avoid paying the New Mexico Gross Receipts Tax. Why? The reasoning seemed to go, making a living as a musician is difficult; we don't make enough money; avoiding unpleasant taxes will provide us with more income; i.e., society owes us.
Where were the professional ethics and sense of citizenship in this type of instruction? Is it any wonder then that students could feel justified in misappropriating musical instruments for their own use? Society owed it to them.
Unfortunately, this is an immature and irresponsible attitude. If the faculty members of the Department of Music fail to teach citizenship and professional ethics how can we create students with a strong ethical basis, prepared and able to act as good citizens?
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The Music Department has been in decline since it began hiring faculty without college degrees. The result is an anti-intellectual, street-smart mentality that has run rampant in the department. Missing is the integrity and professional ethics that a university should impart to its students. If we teach our students to steal from the state, we should not be surprised when they steal from us. This has happened with the recent theft of the two bassoons from the Music Department.
What is the solution?
1. The Music Department should hold mandatory seminars on professional ethics for its students and faculty.
2. The Music Department should offer information on obtaining business licenses as independent music teachers, simple bookkeeping, and the registration and filing of New Mexico Gross Receipts Tax for its students.
3. All faculty members, who currently use their UNM studios to teach private non-university students, should be required to show a City of Albuquerque Business license and proof of New Mexico Gross Receipts Tax payments.
4. The Music Department should only hire faculty members with masters or doctorates in music degrees as stipulated by the University. If you do not have a college degree, I am sorry, you are not qualified to teach at the University of New Mexico.
5. And last, the faculty should hold themselves to a higher standard and think about the ethics they teach and the responsibility that implies.
They should ask themselves what is right and what is wrong? If they do not teach citizenship and professional ethics to their students, who will?
Robert Starner
UNM alumnus
